The app is being trialled in three Sydney centres operated by Only About Children, with plans to roll it out more widely later this year. Victoria's Woodland Education has developed a similar app which also alerts parents to the real-time minutiae and milestones of their children’s lives, including what they had for lunch and if they soiled their nappies.

But experts have questioned whether young children need to have their lives documented in such detail and how it might affect normal interactions between parents, kids and carers.

Only About Children's chief operations officer, Kathryn Hutchins, said the group, which has 31 centres in NSW, Victoria and Queensland, developed the app in response to parental demand.

‘‘We want to capture the moments working parents may want to see but don’t have the opportunity to because they are at work,’’ she said. ‘‘For example, if your child is just learning to walk, there will be a photo that shows that activity.’’

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Educators carry a small handset tablet, photographing the children and writing short descriptions of what they are doing before uploading the content. The parent then gets a push notification, alerting them to the status update.

Mr Whisker, who works full-time in IT, said the updates were a ‘‘pleasant surprise’’ which helped him feel more connected to his children.

‘‘It does make me feel more engaged,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m in meetings most of the day but it’s nice because I can come out of a meeting and see the notification on my phone and I can just quickly go into the app, read the two or three paragraphs and see the pictures throughout the day.’’

But child psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg described the new technology as ‘‘helicopter gunship parenting’’.

‘‘Parents need some time away from their children to focus on work or do things for themselves and children don’t need that constant level of surveillance,’’ he said.

‘‘I love technology but I do think this interferes with the normal interaction between parents and children.’’

He said parents should be able to trust carers to get on with their work without the need for constant updates.

Professor Ron Rapee, director of the Centre for Emotional Health at Macquarie University, described the app as ‘‘very much a gimmick but it may not be a bad gimmick’’.

‘‘For the majority of parents, I would think this is a wonderful way of staying connected and feeling like they are more involved in their children’s lives especially when they are working and maybe feeling a bit guilty about leaving their child,’’ he said.